Broken Frontier

One thousand years ago, superstition and the sword ruled. And a little over a decade ago, an extraordinary animated series called Gargoyles debuted. With its mature storytelling and a mixture of fantasy, mythology, science fiction, and even Shakespeare, Gargoyles was unlike anything from the Disney Studio before or since.

Ten years after the series left the air, creator Greg Weisman is continuing the saga in a new ongoing comic series from Slave Labor Graphics. We find our scaly heroes facing a new status quo after their existence is exposed to the world. Broken Frontier talked with Greg about Goliath and his clan.

BROKEN FRONTIER: The Gargoyles comic has the potential to appeal to both comics fans and non-comics readers who were viewers of the show. Are Disney or Slave Labor Graphics doing anything to promote the book outside the comics industry?

GREG WEISMAN: I have no idea actually. That might be better asked of [SLG publisher] Dan Vado. I know that what we are trying to do is reach out to the fans through the Gargoyles convention, “The Gathering of the Gargoyles.” It takes place every year. This year it’s in California from June 23-26. So we’re reaching out through various websites and through the convention. We’re trying to make sure every Gargoyles fan knows about the book. Hopefully they’ll pick up, you know, one copy, ten, whatever they feel like. [Laughs]

Then, obviously we’re hoping it reaches comic book fans. The book is being written so that if you are a longtime fan of Gargoyles, you’ll love it and if you’ve never seen the show before, we’re trying to find a window in, a starting point where you can come in and not be totally lost. To just sort of go, “Wow, what a great, fun, exciting, dramatic series.” Even if you’ve never seen an episode of Gargoyles before, you can think, “This is a great comic.”

BF: The comic continues from the end of Season 2. Are the events of the third season, The Goliath Chronicles, still considered “in continuity”, to use a comic book term?

GW: Um, no [laughs]. I did the first two seasons of Gargoyles and then moved on—or thought I did— in my professional life and they did the third season largely without me. I have great respect for the people who did the third season, but I know they were under tremendous deadline pressure. One of the results of that was that they just didn’t have time to go back and really rock like those first two seasons. A lot of things happen in the third season which are kind of out of character. So, the comic is really the third season as I would have approached it. We pick up right where things left off. I’m not going out of my way to contradict the third season per se, but I’m kind of, well, ignoring it.

BF: Fair enough. Gargoyles has a rather devoted fan base that has kept interest in the property alive for many years. What has the response from this community been to the prospect of the story continuing in this particular format?

GW: Generally, everyone’s pretty darn excited. I’ve got a good relationship with the fandom in general and with a lot of individuals personally through these conventions. It wasn’t a plan or anything like that, but I’ve been going to the Gargoyles conventions for nine years and I’ve been very, very, very well treated and I tremendously appreciate it. So they know who I am, they know how much I care about this property. The fact that the original creator is the one doing the writing of the book creates a certain amount of trust and expectation. It’s also a source of anxiety in a way since there’s been so much anticipation. They’ve been waiting ten years for more Gargoyles material and I worry that they’ll get this book and go, “Eh” [laughs].

But hopefully that’s not the case. I think we’re telling really exciting stories. The first two issues are kind of a primer. They reintroduce the series and serve as an entry point for new readers, for people who only have a passing memory or have never seen the show. Starting with issue #3 is, I think, when we really kick into gear. This is where we start to build into a new arc and you get a sense of the direction of it all.

BF: As I recall, you’ve worked at DC Comics in the past as a writer and editor. How does it feel to be returning to the comics medium again after all this time?

GW: It’s kind of a re-education process. It’s been a long time. I worked at DC on staff from 1985-87 and I was a writer for them to about 1990 or 1991. And I’d say from 1991 through now when I started writing Gargoyles, the number of comic books I wrote you could probably count on one hand. Getting back into it, the good news is that I’ve been working in animation which has a lot in common with that kind of storytelling, so some of the stuff I’ve learned is absolutely directly applicable. But I’ve also had to relearn some tricks. I have to remember how I used to do it and combine all my experiences. I’m working on the script for issue #3 now and I feel with each issue I’m remembering more and learning new techniques. It’s a challenge but I’m enjoying it.

BF: What has the experience been like of working with a single artist as opposed to a whole animation team?

GW: We’ve still got a team really. David Hedgecock is a great penciller and I’ve been watching as he gets a feel for the characters and gets better with every page. We’ve also got Will Terrell who’s our colorist who has really done some great stuff. We’ve got Greg Guler who’s my partner in this and was one of the original character designers on Gargoyles who created the models for characters like Goliath, Demona, and Elisa.

Greg is sort of art directing the book to an extent and doing the covers. But yeah, in a way it’s very refreshing to be working so directly with an individual. It’s kind of like my partnership on the original Gargoyles show with Frank Paur. He and I were the supervising producers. He handled the art side and I handled the writing side. He had literally hundreds of artists working under him, but my relationship was more direct. We’d have discussions and we’d talk about how we wanted things to go. It’s that sense of partnership and that’s what David and I have now and are building stronger with each issue.

Click here for a preview of Gargoyles #1, and visit us again on Thursday for the conclusion of BF's interview with Greg Weisman.